A Translation Project Manager’s 4 Most Dreaded Words

Four words from a translation client that can strike fear in a project manager’s heart are:

“We’re reviewing your translation.”

Okay so maybe it’s five words depending on how you count contractions.

 

Why are these words so dreaded? Well it’s not because we don’t have confidence in our translators and the processes they follow to ensure high quality translations are consistently produced. It’s not that a client shouldn’t reasonably review our delivered translations. They really should.

The problem with customer reviews of translations are several including:

1) What are the qualifications of the reviewer? Are they a native speaker in the language, or are they just bilingual with some language facility. A bilingual person with some language skills might be considered an “expert” within their organization but their skills are not on par with a professional linguist. More importantly their language skills might not be representative of the target market.

2) Does the reviewer have an agenda (e.g., I may be low man/woman in the pecking order around here but I’ll show them I know something about language). Does the reviewer have an incentive (unconscious or otherwise) to take exception to translated terminology and mark synonymous terms as incorrect?

3) Does the reviewer understand that there are often multiple approaches to expressing meaning in a target language and that the translator’s approach may not match their personal preferences exactly?

These are among the reasons why translation project managers may dread having delivered translations scrutinized internally by clients post-delivery. What’s a project manager to do?

 

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